New Rule Grants Patients Direct Access to Lab Results

By

Melinda Beck

Feb. 3, 2014 1:05 p.m. ET

Clinical laboratories must give patients access to their own lab-test results upon request, without going through the physician who ordered them, according to a new federal rule announced Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The rule, first proposed in 2011, is part of an Obama administration effort to give patients more control over their own health information.